Cyclyx International, a joint venture between Agilyx, ExxonMobil, and more recently LyondellBasell, has made the final investment decision to build its first Cyclyx Circularity Centre (CCC) in Houston, United States.
The facility will have a capacity to produce around 136,000 tonnes (300 million pounds) of plastic feedstock for chemical and mechanical recycling, with ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell holding offtake rights. Together, the two companies are investing $135 million into Cyclyx to fund operating activities and construction costs for the new facility, which is expected to start operations in mid-2025.
Cyclyx draws on a database of over 1500 post-use plastic chemical characterizations to assesses each source of waste plastic to understand its chemical profile. It then uses artificial intelligence and big data to sort those profiles into the various mechanical and chemical recycling pathways that the plastics can be used for. The CCC will focus on sorting and custom blending collected material to ensure feedstock specifications and classifications meet expectations for ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell.
The CCC will accept, analyze, and process mixed plastic waste, including difficult-to-recycle plastics, such as food packaging, chip bags, and bottle caps, sourced from a combination of post-consumer, commercial, and industrial plastic waste.
“This milestone is evidence of the real progress we are making to increase the circularity of plastic waste as a resource,” said Joe Vaillancourt, CEO of Cyclyx. “The first-of-its-kind CCC in Houston will serve as a blueprint, which we can replicate across the U.S. to progress our long-term goal of increasing the recycling options for plastic waste. Cyclyx is proud to be an innovator and enabler for unlocking plastic’s potential.”
Cyclyx said in a statement that is ‘exploring’ the development of additional CCCs across the US, with the goal of increasing the recycling rate of plastics and potentially diverting millions of tonnes of plastic waste from landfills.
This story originated from our sister publication Sustainable Plastics.